Background and Objective: Hashimoto’s thyroiditis (HT) is commonly recognized autoimmune thyroid disorder; it’s identified by chronic lymphocytic infiltration and progressive thyroid tissue destruction. The probability of developing this disease is linked to genetic and immunological factors. The objective of the study is to investigate the correlation between gene polymorphism of Interleukin 18 (IL-18), a pro-inflammatory cytokine, which include (rs1946518, rs187238 and rs1946519) and the susceptibility of HT in the Iraqi population.
Methods: 100 subjects were investigated in this study; 50 patients which are diagnosed with HT and 50 healthy as controls. The methods focused on Molecular level in which the genotyping of the samples were performed using sequencing techniques then the distribution of alleles and genotypes were determined using statistical analysis.
Results: The findings revealed that rs1946518 indicated the difference in the genotype or allele frequency among HT patients and controls was non-significant. However, rs187238 results demonstrated no genetic variation in this study population, in which all tested samples of patients and controls showed the homozygous wild-type genotype which indicate that this specific SNP might not be polymorphic, or it’s not linked to the susceptibility of HT in Iraqi population. In addition, rs1946519 showed no significant difference among patients’ group and controls.
Conclusion: In conclusion, the examined IL-18 gene polymorphisms (rs1946518, rs187238 and rs1946519) showed a non-significant correlation with HT in this observed Iraqi samples. It is recommended to continue the research on this topic with larger sample sizes and include more diverse groups.